Rum, Romanism & Rebellion....and Eaton!

                                                            Old Town of Eaton Museum

The Old Town of Eaton Museum will be open this Sunday from 1 to 3!  Come down and enjoy the Day and learn some history you never knew about Eaton!

Well... is anyone tired of the election yet?????  

I am!  This whole thing has gotten out of hand..and this back and forth, back and forth, without any real information or with information that changes depending on the day.... has really got me. Can we Mail in ballots or noT?

I remember an interesting story that I was spouting at dinner about Grover Cleveland and the R & R thing..I remembered a Republican minister with local ties who went to fill a speaking engagement for another person who had to cancel.  His name was Dr. Samuel Dickenson Burchard  and he got up and gave the usual preacher long winded speech.. in - part off the cuff ..when he interjected the words...an alliteration actually...Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!

A reporter who was half asleep pick up on it..and the rest is history!!!!  I quote here from the website Rum, Romanism and Rebellion...

"Days before the election, James Blaine visited the crucial swing state of New York, attending a morning meeting in a New York City hotel. During a speech made by Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard, the Democratic Party was assailed as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” In many ways, this phrase singled out Irish Catholics, many of whom lived in the large urban centers like New York and Boston. The phrase catered to the stereotype of the drunken Irishman and demeaned the Catholic faith. Most all Irish were Roman Catholic."

"The term “Rebellion” was a typical post Civil War Republican ploy of “waving the bloody shirt,” reminding voters that it had been the Democrats who were responsible for the great bloodshed and connecting them to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. "

"Catholic priests took to the pulpit the weekend before the election and urged church members to vote against the Republicans. When it was all over, Cleveland carried the state."

Well Dr. Samuel Dickenson Burchard was from the famous Burchard family of Pecksport in Eaton.   His brother was the famous Sylvester Burchard who brought the first breeding herd of Holsteins to the USA and who was also a  famous judge of the breed.  Sylvester was married to Ali Morse of the famous Morse family of Eaton. 

What is interesting is that I have some things of Dr. Burchard's in the Old Town of Eaton Museum.  One is the story told by his niece that after the election Grover Cleveland (who also had ties to Eaton - his brother was the minister of the Eaton Congregational Church)- invited Burchard to the White House to thank him for his remarks and laugh..Burchard said he didn't want to be seen doing it for obvious reasons, so the President sent a coach with curtains drawn for him and brought him to the White House in secret!

In fact though..Blaine also lost that election because of Republicans who jumped sides and became known as "Mug Wumps"!

A humorous side note!!!!

When asked about the loss, James Blaine was reported to have said: “I should have carried New York by 10,000 votes if the weather had been clear and Dr. Burchard had been doing missionary work in Asia Minor or China.” Blaine’s great mistake had been not distancing himself from Burchard’s comments."

Needed Markers, Cows, Morse Girls & Pecksport.

I am sure we have all been depressed by the ups and downs of the weather and the news of the pandemic that is raging around us.  I myself am one!  

The weather had to be tough on animals also with it going from near zero to mid sixties and back again all winter. This got me thinking about milk production problems and  local cows, yes cows.

Few people realize the role the Town of Eaton has played in the history of the Holstein-Friesian breed whose relatives still dot the countryside today.  Many know of Gerrit Smith Miller and his famous cow, but few realize that the Chenango Breeders Association brought the first actual breeding herd here from Holland in the mid 1800’s. This herd was bought to Eaton via the last remnants of the Chenango Canal.  

The Chenango Breeders Association was formed by  group of mostly Eatonites that included Sylvester Burchard, Charles Payne and a very interesting man called by many Deacon (Alva) Cole.  Burchard and Payne wrote the rules the breed is judged by even today with Burchard's regarded as one of the best judges of the breed. (I have some of Cole’s and Burchard’s artifacts and pictures in the Old Town of Eaton Museum.) 

It is also interesting to note that the old Burchard Farm was the first dairy in Madison County. The Burchard's also had a cheese factory in Peck's Port... and Sylvester Jr. moved that building  (moving it crossed the street) when he first married. The main house shown above, and the cheese factory buildings are still standing today. 

Anna Burchard

Burchard Family and Friends

The young ladies Anna and Louise Burchard (we talked about in an earlier blog) were born and lived there in the main house. Since neither of the girls married this was always considered the homestead. Of course in those days women who became teachers seldom married.

Sylvester's wife was Allie Morse of the famous Morse family of Eaton, and the beautiful picture above shows Allie and girls and their carriage in front if the house, which unfortunately does not look as beautiful today.  I have many lovely pictures at the museum taken by  the girls who were avid photographers.  Their father did not really approve of women going to college and becoming teachers... but their cousin Cornelia... who married John Raymond the first president of Vassar... inspired them to attend with Louise working there for her entire life.  Anna became the head school master of a private school in New York City.

*Sylvester and the cattlemen referred to hops the new main crop of the area as "The Devil's Weed"...they were Baptists.

Winter, Cows, Fog, The Old Town of Eaton Museum and Me!

Burchard Farm as it used to look...still standing in Pine Woods

It seems everyone has been down with something health wise this winter.  For those that haven’t been affected physically they have been depressed by the ups and downs of the weather.  I myself am one!  It had to be tough on animals with near zero to mid sixties and back again. This got me thinking about the cows, yes the cows.

Few people realize the role the Town of Eaton has played in the history of the Holstein-Friesian breed whose relatives still dot the countryside today.  Many know of Gerrit Smith Miller and his famous cow, but few realize that the Chenango Breeders Association brought the first actual breeding herd here from Holland in the 1800’s.  As a matter of fact the group of Eatonites included Sylvester Burchard, Charles Payne and a very interesting man called by many Deacon (Alva) Cole.  As a matter of fact Burchard and Payne wrote the rules the breed was judged by. (I have some of Cole’s and Burchard’s artifacts and pictures in the Old Town of Eaton Museum.) It is also interesting to note that the old Burchard Farm was the first dairy in Madison County.

So with that being said… the “FOG” we had the other night down here made me think of a good story I remembered. One of the many things I did not realize when I move here was the meaning of the term “leavings”.  Old Nellie Wooten always would say as she went here or there that there were a mess of leavings. Okay, what are leavings? But not inquiring…. I would just shrug my shoulders and figure it was something or other. I finally realized the actual meaning once, which made sense months later.

It was a hot spring week, but the nights were still quite cool, and my cat Chat my cat woke me up and kept running to the side door. I got up and followed him as Chat was very smart, and I assumed some- thing was wrong. As we went out onto the porch I could hear this mooing that sounded eerie. It was dancing in the thick pea soup fog that had arisen. It seemed to be moving at one point, then sounded as if it was in my back yard, but neither the cat or I could see anything.

The next morning I went across the street to my neighbor Mike Curtis’ and asked, “Were there cows loose running around town last night”? He just laughed at me. ”It’s the fog, it makes everything sound that way!” I walked over to Bob Rollins, struck up a conversation and told him about it. He said, “Oh the fog can really fool you; it was for sure the farm up above.” He told me a story about how some local men had been lost in the local swamp after going bullhead fishing because the fog was so thick. He said they even had to send a search group after them when they did not return home! Something I stored in my memory should I ever go bullhead fishing in a swamp in spring! 

Just then Nellie came strolling down the street heading “over town” as she called it. I greeted her and asked her if she had heard cows roaming in the back yards last night. She said no but asked if I had looked in my back yard for leavings!

Ah, leavings. All of the bells and whistles went off in my head: leavings! Sure enough, there were cow leavings, and the piles of stuff that they left were quite visible. Even today I politely call them leav- ings!

So csome to the old Town of Eaton this Spring and view “Cow” history!

Local history -Vassar College, John Raymond, the Beechers, the Morse family and oh yes Eaton History!

Burchard Familt with Alli, Anna and Louise

I read my mail today and realized that is still wonderful to open the mail and get information for the museum from Vassar College.  The fact is Eaton has a role in Vassar College’s history in its earliest days.  This dates to the college’s early President John Raymond and his wife Cornelia Morse Raymond and her cousins Anna and Louise Burchard.  It also dates to the founding of today’s Colgate University since Raymond taught at Colgate and on the Burchard side... Seneca Barton Burchard was a supporter and supervisor of the building of the  hall that today's COVE is located in.

Melville Landon

John Raymond met and married Cornelia Morse Raymond while at Colgate... he also became good friends with Henry Ward Beecher who visited him often up here.  Of course Henry Ward Beecher’s relatives in Eaton were Samuel Stowe of Stowe’s Tavern, and Mrs. Joseph Morse (Eunice Bigelow Morse)...(His grandmother was a Stowe)

Another part of the relationship appears to be Melville Landon (Eli Perkins) whose father John Landon moved his family to Eaton from Lichfield, Conn. home parish of Rev. Lyman Beecher... Harriets & Henry's father.  John Landon was an early supporter of the Olive Branch Newspaper (published in Sherburne, NY), which carried all of Beecher’s editorials and articles.  *Please note that the Beechers of the Sherburne area are direct relatives.  Melville Landon was a very good friend of Henry’s and the Morse family. (Also remember that Harriet Beecher Stowe married Calvin Ellis Stowe (Great Aunt was Mrs. Joseph Morse -Eunice Bigelow Morse) who became the assistant to her father at Lane Seminary in Ohio.

My… my… how things entangle as we study the past.

Louise Burchard

Cornelia’s relatives were Anna Burchard and Louise Burchard who were enticed to go to Vassar when John Raymond became President of the Vassar College, and today a scholarship still retains Louise’s name since she also taught at the college.  Louise wrote an early book on information for called Aid for Women Voters...published when the women first got the vote... she was an avid women's rights advocate. (We have a copy of her book at the museum)

Anna and Louise Burchard where the daughters of Sylvester Burchard and Allie Morse…Allie was Bigelow Morse’s daughter and Sylvester Burchard was the head of the Chenango Breeder’s Association that brought the first breeding herd of Holsteins to America.

Ahhhh…Eaton and its famous families have so much history that I will never be able to track it all…but the Old Town of Eaton Museum has artifacts that belong to all of these people and is a great place to learn the history of not only Eaton and Colgate…but also of the national figures who were missionaries, teachers, speakers, authors and on and on..

The Museum will be opening officially this year on Memorial Day Monday…come down and join us in our celebration of history!

A quick trip to the Old Town of Eaton Museum!

The NYS Agricultural Society, Holsteins, Pecksport, and the Chenango Breeders Association

This year marks the 180^th anniversary of the NYS agricultural Society a group that has helped forward agricultural education over its long history, a history that also includes its promotion of all of our county fairs. (Below a link to a great article on the society done by Debra Groom.)

An important part of that history of course, is the Holstein-Friesian breed of cattle that have become the staple of the milk producers in our rural NYS area.  The Holsteins always seem to be associated with Gerrit Miller of Peterboro, who helped forge the registering of that breed…but the breed has been in NYS in small numbers since the times of the Dutch and the Holland Land Company.

Alonzo Peck son of Josiah Peck owner of Pecksport
who ran the warehouse and was a teacher at
Madison University..today's Colgate.

In the 1870’s a group of businessmen called the Chenango Breeders Association, set off for Holland with the main purpose of bringing back a “breeding herd” of cattle. The trip was successful and this group of men managed to bring over 270 head back.  What is interesting is that not one was lost on an arduous voyage across the ocean and up (the then going defunct) Chenango Canal to Pecksport. 

Pecksport has always been a sort of mystery to some people… as today it is just a spot on the map located in the Town of Eaton…but in its day it had the first actual modern dairy in Madison County run by the Burchard family …a cheese factory...and warehouse company.  One of the Burchard sons, Sylvester Jr. was one of the Chenango Breeders Association members.  Burchard with other members...Charles Payne of Eaton….Alva Cole of Eaton… are actually credited with writing the points by which we judge the breed today.  Sylvester Burchard Jr. himself became a noted judge at the New York State Fair for many years.

These men actually lived and breathed cows, and I have many of the pictures of this early herd in the Eaton Museum with artifacts belonging to this noted family.  It is of course, Holsteins and milk production that helped replace the fading Hop industry in Madison County… as a matter of fact Burchard often referred to the hops plant as “the Devil’s weed”.

PS… Pecksport was also the busiest port on the Chenango Canal located at the end of Leland's Pond and the birthplace of famous baseball player Hooks Wiltse.  Also of interest is that just a few miles below Pecksport on route 46 near Munnsville, is the birthplace of another famous dairyman…William Dempster Hoard founder of Hoard’s Journal for Dairymen.

Enjoy a trip to the area......

Link to Debra Groom's article..

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/new_york_state_agricultural_so_1.html